1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for the growth of a compound semiconductor, which comprises causing a Group III-V compound semiconductor to grow into a single crystal on a silicon (Si) substrate.
2. Description of Prior Art
A case has been reported in which a crystal of good quality was obtained by growing on a Si substrate a GaP as a particular Group III-V compound semiconductor having a lattice constant approximating the lattice constant of the Si. In the case of crystal of other compound semiconductors having a different lattice constant, it is difficult to obtain the growth of a crystal of good quality. If this growth takes place at all, there is obtained a grown layer of polycrystalline structure which assumes a milky surface. In the case of a GaAs, there has been an attempt to grow on a Si substrate a Ge whose lattice constant approximates that of GaAs and then grow a GaAs on the produced intermediate Ge. This method requires repetition of the work of crystal growth and entails the problem of auto-doping of Ge.
It has been proposed to form a single crystal layer of a Group III-V compound semiconductor on a plurality of the alternating layers of a Group III-V compound semiconductor and another Group III-V compound semiconductor having a lattice constant approximating the lattice constant of the aforementioned semiconductor grown in advance on the substrate of such a Group IV compound semiconductor as Ge or Si (Japanese Patent Application Disclosure SHO 59(1984)-73499). Although this method is capable of producing a single crystal layer of GaAs of good quality when the growth is made on a substrate of Ge, it fails to produce a single crystal layer of GaAs of good quality because of variance in lattice constant when the growth is made on a substrate of Si.